The Real Housewives of Melbourne is set for a massive shakeup in season 5, with three new cast members named today for the upcoming return season.
Joining the crew will be businesswoman Kyla Kirkpatrick, yoga instructor Cherry Dipietrantonio and international TV journalist Anjali Rao.
WATCH: Meet the Real Housewives of Melbourne 2020 cast
On the outer are original cast member, psychic and rock wife Jackie Gillies, and Sally Bloomfield and Venus Behbahani from season 4. At least one of the women was believed to have been shoved out after feuding with a key power player on the show.
Returning to screens will be fixtures Lydia Schiavello, Janet Roach, Gina Liano and Gamble Breaux.
The show, which films next months, will air on Foxtel later this year, ending plenty of speculation that the show was not set to return. Long plagued by talk it was getting too expensive, and was too much of a headache for the pay TV provider, the show has recently had a very rocky path.
The new women bring their own stories to the mix.
Newcomer Kirkpatrick, known in some Melbourne circles as the ‘Champagne Dame’, has a six-year-old daughter. UK-born Dipietrantonio is married with three children.
Rao is a familiar face, formerly hosting CNN’s weekday breakfast news and Talk Asia.
Gillies says she will now be focussing on starting a family with ex-Silverchair star Ben.
‘I’m not getting any younger,’ she says of her greater sense of urgency to make it happen.
Bloomfield left amid rumours that Gina Liano did not want her back – with Foxtel boss Briahn Walsh admitting that Gina was not a fan.
‘Where we left last season is that Gina said she would not come back to the show if Sally was on the series, and that has taken us some time to resolve how we move forward,’ he said.
Behbahani said she wouldn’t be back due to family considerations.
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